By Emmanuel Ugwueze
Fifteen lawmakers under the aegis of The Economy Rescue Group, have called on Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), to resign.
The group claimed that mismanagement under Kyari’s leadership at the NNPCL was responsible for the woes being recorded by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
In a press statement signed in Abuja on Tuesday by its leader, Honourable Esosa Iyawe, lawmaker representing Oredo Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, in Abuja, they insists that Kyari should be suspended, pending outcome of House of Representatives’ joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream and Midstream) forensic investigation into the state of the national oil company and the downstream and midstream sectors as a whole.
The lawmakers accused the NNPCL CEO and other management staff of the corporation of undermining Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
The lawmakers declared they must be shown the way out until the forensic investigation embarked upon by the House of Representatives through the Downstream and Midstream joint Committee was concluded, in other to avoid any act of sabotage.
While backing the House’s forensic investigation into the presence of middlemen in trading, indiscriminate issuance of licenses, unavailability of laboratories to check adulterated products, the influx of adulterated products into the country, among others, the group advised President Tinubu to wield the big stick by suspending the NNPCL top echelons till the probe is over.
“We the 15 concerned lawmakers state unequivocally that the woes of the Oil and Gas sector in the President Bola Ahmed- led administration are caused mainly by the failures and mismanagement of the NNPLC under Kyari’s management. Therefore, for this to be fixed, they should honourably resign.
“In an event they fail to step down on their own, the President should not hesitate to suspend them pending the investigation embarked upon the House of Representatives through its joint Committee on Petroleum: Downstream and Midstream.
“The petroleum sector remains the backbone of the nation’s economy and the allegations uncovered by the House which necessitated the forensic investigation are astounding and astonishing.
“They have to do with the presence of middlemen in trading, the indiscriminate issuance of licenses, the unavailability of laboratories to check adulterated products, the influx of adulterated products into the country, the allegation of non-domestication of profits realised from crude marketing sales in local banks, and other anomalies.
“Unfair subsidisation of PMS and other petroleum products which negatively affects competitiveness in the sector, racketeering and favouritism in the Pro Forma Invoice System (PFI) regime, indiscriminate issuance of licenses and importation of refined petroleum products.
“Return of PMS price intervention with its impact on domestic market, product unavailability to marketers from NNPC Retail. Endless shifting of timelines for refinery rehabilitation, the nefarious activities at petrol depot which have affected product distribution and caused scarcity and the use of middlemen in trading which has negatively affected domestic crude supply,” the lawmakers alleged.
According to them, with all these happening under the watch of Kyari, there was no way the economy can grow.
“It is therefore, obvious that the NNPCL management is out to undermine and is already undermining the Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda with incompetence and they must be suspended to give room for unhindered probe,” they added.
It could be recalled that Honourable Esosa Iyawe recently moved a motion in the House, calling on the Federal Government to suspend the CEO of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, pending investigation into his